Grand Prix Rejects

I imagine we all can suggest a driver & wonder how they would have done if....

I'll start this off with Peter Brock,

(Somewhere on the other side of the World Jenoch have a collective"moment").

Gonzalo Rodriguez

Can there be drivers we'd like to have seen MORE of?

Johnny Dumfries
Alessandro Nannini

Colin McRae. Him at BAR 1999, had it been a good car, would have been epic (555 livery = win, as long as JV's car had all the Lucky Strike branding on it.)
Mark Skaife. Was only one step from going to F1...though he wasn't especially quick in F3000.

ADx_Wales wrote:Can there be drivers we'd like to have seen MORE of?

Johnny Dumfries
Alessandro Nannini

I was hoping people would suggest drivers who didn't get the chance or who didn't want to do it. But after 10 posts we'll be discussing Buzzcocks or something anyway so what the hell.

I'd have liked to have seen more of The Earl too, Nannini was an unfortunate casualty like Tom Pryce, who could have done better.

I've always been rather curious to see how Jeff Gordon would've fared in Formula 1.

As well as Klaus Ludwig, can anyone else recall another German F3000/sportscar driver who also turned down F1. I think there was one but the name eludes me completely.

Allan McNish got his chance about 10 years too late. So basically would have liked to see him much much earlier.

kostas22 wrote:Colin McRae. Him at BAR 1999, had it been a good car, would have been epic (555 livery = win, as long as JV's car had all the Lucky Strike branding on it.)

Two sigs ago, I asked for Jari-Matti Latvala (panel beaters galore) and Casey "I munch rear tyres for breakfast" Stoner. And I stand by it. Between the two, they could wipe out 3/4 of the field at the start of every race.

eagleash wrote:As well as Klaus Ludwig, can anyone else recall another German F3000/sportscar driver who also turned down F1. I think there was one but the name eludes me completely.

Jorg Muller?

I'd like to have seen Bruno Junqueira and Kenny Brack in F1.

Bleu wrote:Allan McNish got his chance about 10 years too late. So basically would have liked to see him much much earlier.

Yes agree with that watched him in f3 in 1989...even my girlfriend was impressed.....but that accident at Donington set him back badly.

The german driver I was trying to remember was Klaus Niedwiecz (Sp?)

Not Jorg but had hopes for Yvan Muller after watching a wet brands f3000 in 1992

Fritz Kreutzpointer, part of the Mercedes sports car youngsters that eventually found himself racing in the European Truck Racing Championship.
"King" Hiro Matsushita, desperately slow Champ Car driver noted for raising the ire of Emerson Fittipaldi.
Neel Jani, no explanation needed - was a third driver though.
Sebastien Loeb, just to see how that would have gone.

Csaba Kesjar, the first Hungarian touted for F1. Third generation driver tragically killed at the Norisring round of the 1988 German F3 series, aged 26, after 4 Hungarian Formula Easter titles, the 1986 Austrian Formula Ford championship, and a short demonstation drive for Zakspeed on the Hungaroring.

eagleash wrote:Yes agree with that watched him in f3 in 1989...even my girlfriend was impressed.....but that accident at Donington set him back badly.

Funnily enough I've just started watching a video of the F3 season (I'm about a third of the way through) which has sat on my shelf unwatched for over a year!
I agree that from what I've seen McNish does look very good, however the driver that really caught my eye was Otto Rensing who was in the same team as Paul Stewart that year and embarassingly for the Stewart clan (but hilariously for me as I can't stand them!) about 10 times better. I'd never heard of him previously.
There's some hilariously bad driving contained in this VHS from the likes of Damon Hill, Rickard Rydell and Philippe Adams btw!

Possibly a legitimate Irish driver?

Probably too much to ask, so realistically - John Winter. Might have kept him from killing himself and might have revealed who he was.

As kostas said, Colin McRae would have been epic, as would Loeb a couple of years ago.

I don't really follow enough other series though to have an opinion that isn't hacked off someone else.

Milka Duno just to see if she's any better than Channoch Nissany. Sadly she would make him look like Nuvolari

Tony Stewart who if he ever got in shape could be a good driver in Formula 1. The man can drive the wheels off any car he gets into and it would be fun to see him in an F1 car.

Dario Franchitti is a good road course driver in indycars sports cars, and has experience from DTM from the mid 90's.

shinji wrote:Possibly a legitimate Irish driver?

Probably too much to ask, so realistically - John Winter. Might have kept him from killing himself and might have revealed who he was.

As kostas said, Colin McRae would have been epic, as would Loeb a couple of years ago.

I don't really follow enough other series though to have an opinion that isn't hacked off someone else.

John Winter was Louis Krages a German businessman....Or is that another red herring? Nope he also competed as Krages (Wiki)

Rally drivers in F1 not a great history (& vice versa). Stirling could do both.

I really want to see Kyle Busch get an F1 drive.

thehemogoblin wrote:I really want to see Kyle Busch get an F1 drive.

For a moment there I read that as Kylie Minogue

eagleash wrote:

thehemogoblin wrote:I really want to see Kyle Busch get an F1 drive.

For a moment there I read that as Kylie Minogue

I wouldn't complain about that.

thehemogoblin wrote:

eagleash wrote:

thehemogoblin wrote:I really want to see Kyle Busch get an F1 drive.

For a moment there I read that as Kylie Minogue

I wouldn't complain about that.

An all female Minogue GP team.....Jenson would be up for that

(You see we're nearly at Buzzcocks as I predicted)

eagleash wrote:An all female Minogue GP team.....Jenson would be up for that

(You see we're nearly at Buzzcocks as I predicted)

We are?

shinji wrote:

eagleash wrote:An all female Minogue GP team.....Jenson would be up for that

(You see we're nearly at Buzzcocks as I predicted)

We are?

Not The Buzzcocks Shinj....but the ever popular irreverent Pop Quiz "Never Mind the Buzzcocks".....not get in Dublin?

& now we're there......BU**ER

Can I nonimate myself???

I wouldn't might seeing Jason Plato in F1...not so much for his driving more for his personality, as we could always do with a few more characters in F1.

thehemogoblin wrote:I really want to see Kyle Busch get an F1 drive.

This.

deCrasheris wrote:Tony Stewart who if he ever got in shape could be a good driver in Formula 1. The man can drive the wheels off any car he gets into and it would be fun to see him in an F1 car.

There was a time long long ago where Tony Stewart was actually in any shape to race an open wheeler (He won the 97 Indycar championship but that was a time when ChampCar still ruled the roost so it's not much to write home about )

Nelson Piquet Jr.

Speaking of characters, it would have been interesting to see Paul Tracy mixing with the long faces in the paddock.

dragonsteincole wrote:Speaking of characters, it would have been interesting to see Paul Tracy mixing with the long faces in the paddock.

I think Paul Tracy tested for Williams sometime in the 90s......if I remember rightly before the test he "all but had the drive", but it didn't go as well as planned & afterward it was as if it hadn't taken place?

eagleash wrote:

dragonsteincole wrote:Speaking of characters, it would have been interesting to see Paul Tracy mixing with the long faces in the paddock.

I think Paul Tracy tested for Williams sometime in the 90s......if I remember rightly before the test he "all but had the drive", but it didn't go as well as planned & afterward it was as if it hadn't taken place?

Well, at least he tested for Benetton in 1994:

Pretty much any reject driver in other categories...

You think Alonso/Massa is a bad combo at Ferrari?

You replace them with Matt Neal and Jason Plato, and together they will cause the end of the earth.

eagleash wrote:I think Paul Tracy tested for Williams sometime in the 90s......if I remember rightly before the test he "all but had the drive", but it didn't go as well as planned & afterward it was as if it hadn't taken place?

Must be Bruno Junqueira you're thinking of. It was a straight contest between him and Button to replace Zanardi at Williams for the 2000 season and the rest is history really

I've mentioned it somewhere before, but touring car door-banger Anthony Reid was very close to getting into F1.

Drivers I would like to have seen in F1? Hmm, let me think. Erm....



WARREN HUGHES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wizzie wrote:

eagleash wrote:I think Paul Tracy tested for Williams sometime in the 90s......if I remember rightly before the test he "all but had the drive", but it didn't go as well as planned & afterward it was as if it hadn't taken place?

Must be Bruno Junqueira you're thinking of. It was a straight contest between him and Button to replace Zanardi at Williams for the 2000 season and the rest is history really

If I'm right it was quite early 90s, so I think it must be the Benetton test as mentioned above that I was thinking of. I do recall that he was widely expected to do well but the team were disappointed. Another Cart/Champ/Indy hotshoe doesn't make the F1 grade. Whereas average F1 drivers can be quite successful Stateside.

Senna tested Fitipaldi's Penske in the run up to 1993, that would have been a feud worth switching single-seater alliegances for.

HWNSNBM I would have like to have seen more,

Seriously Perry McCarthy or Rickard Rydell

ADx_Wales wrote:Senna tested Fitipaldi's Penske in the run up to 1993, that would have been a feud worth switching single-seater alliegances for.

Would have changed the world.

ADx_Wales wrote:Can there be drivers we'd like to have seen MORE of?

Alessandro Nannini

Good one. Nannini was a real wasted opportunity. Hows about Fabrizio Barbazza; I could never work out what happened to him. Or his hair. It was huge.

coops wrote:

ADx_Wales wrote:Can there be drivers we'd like to have seen MORE of?

Alessandro Nannini

Good one. Nannini was a real wasted opportunity. Hows about Fabrizio Barbazza; I could never work out what happened to him. Or his hair. It was huge.

According to Wiki, he went to US, crashed a Ferrari in 1995, very serious. Set up a Kart track & later moved to Cuba to go fishing!!!